“Look man I don’t know who you are or what you want from me but my friends are in big trouble and I need to get back to them-”
“Your not going anywhere,” Elizabeth said cutting him off as she opened the drivers door and jumped out “tell him what you told me.”
“It was complete bullshit!”
“So what’s this then?” Elizabeth said holding up Milton’s Zippo.
“It’s exactly the same as mine,” another voice said getting out of the passenger door. The guy’s voice sounded exactly the same as his. How was that possible? A second later he got the answer for he was now standing opposite a man who looked identical to him. “it’s the same Zippo, here.” other Milton said tossing the Zippo lighter to him. It read Happy 21st Milton, love your loving wife Elizabeth XXX.
“So in this world I’m married to you?” Milton said to Elizabeth stunned.
“So it’s true then you really are from another world.” older Charles Taylor said.
“We fell through a tear in reality man.” Milton explained and began telling them everything that had happened to him over the last few months.
“So let me get this straight man,” other Milton said roaring with laughter “you mean to tell us this whole time you’ve been camping and surviving in the cities dino-zoo?”
“Dino-zoo? What you going on about man?”
“The Dino-zoo was shut down a few months ago,” Elizabeth explained “due to high levels of radiation there was an emergency evacuation. The dinosaurs must of gone feral due to the absence of the zoo wardens; that explains why they’ve been attacking you.”
“The radiation must be coming from out bomb man,” Milton said. “Now that we’re all friends do you think you can drive me to this zoo and rescue my friends?”
“Friends?” older Charles Taylor said “who said we’re friends? I want to know more about this bomb!”
“Why man?”
“Because if it’s a nuclear bomb it might just be powerful enough to power the time machine I stole from the US Military.”
“What do you intend to do?” Milton said dreading the answer.
“Change history of course,” older Charles Taylor said cocking a gun and putting it to Milton’s head “my history.” he said with an evil smile.
As the four of them trekked back to David’s house Taylor noticed that they wasn’t being attacked by any dinosaurs any more. In fact since meeting David they hadn’t once had to run for their lives.
“The ship is generating a low level telepathic field,” David said as if reading his mind “as long as we’re in this field no dinosaur will go near us.” As they headed back Milton filled him on what happened after he jumped back through the tear to help Elizabeth deal with a pissed off T’Rex, Milton’s wife or more correctly other-Milton’s wife Elizabeth had also joined them after escaping from the evil Milton and Taylor.
“So your grandfather plans to use the nuclear bomb to power his time machine.” Taylor said to Elizabeth.
“That’s right,” Elizabeth said with a nod “in fact he’s the reason your all here in the first place. When he first activated the time machine it created all these tears in reality. That’s why you got lost in the first place Lieutenant Taylor.”
“So what will happen if it has more juice?”
“It’s like a said before man…the end of the world!”
“Then we’ve got to stop him.” Taylor said. He didn’t fight the Nazi’s only for another madman to spring up.
“But he’s you,” Charlotte said “maybe this time machine can get us all home.”
“We’ll need another tear to get home man,” Milton said crestfallen “and who’s to say it will be our Earth once we’re on the other side.”
Yesterday…
Milton was again tied up in the back of the van. He had no idea where they were heading but if he didn’t come up with a plan soon and escape their destination would be the least of his worries. He started to take stock of everything that had happened to him. He was in a parallel universe where everything was the same but a little a bit different but it was more then that; it seemed like that there was a good and evil version of everyone he met including himself. Evil Charles Taylor planned on detonating the nuclear bomb to power a time machine and something told him that if he did the result would be catastrophic; was that what caused the tears in the fabric of reality in the first place. He had to stop him but first he had to get back to Charlotte and the younger Charles Taylor. That meant getting out of the van. But how? When the doors were opened he was about to head-butt whoever decided to come and collect him only to met be with a worried looking Elizabeth. “We don’t have much time,” she said in a whisper “I’m supposed to interrogate you to find out the location of your camp and the bomb. The other you said that you had a crush on me so that’s why they sent me.”
“What will happen after I’ve told you?”
“Do you really need me answer that question? Come on Milton don’t make this more difficult then it has to be.”
“Elizabeth where do you think these tears have come from? That time machine of your grandfathers is dangerous. We need to do something.”
“I can’t go against my husbands wishes! In this world I’d be given the death penalty”
“Seriously?” Milton said stunned before shaking his head “But think about it; you won’t have to.” Milton said with a wink.
Elizabeth slammed the vans doors shut and Milton was once again smothered in darkness. A few minutes later he heard a couple of gunshots before the van quickly and violently accelerated with it’s tires squealing. His heart was pounding when the vans doors were opened again and he was more then a little relived to see Elizabeth holding a smoking gun. “Please tell me you didn’t shoot your grandfather?”
“No I just shot my husband and threw my grandfather out of the van We’re in the clear.”
“Are you sure about that?” Milton said hearing a heavy thumping noise followed about spine chilling roar. He looked over Elizabeth’s shoulder to see a T-Rex stomping their way.
“Shit he must’ve called the cops. Quick get into the passengers seat we’ll have to try and out run them.”
And so one of the most insane police chances in history began with over a dozen T-Rex’s chasing them down the high street complete with blue flashing lights and police siren. It was at times like these he wished he had his Iphone when he saw policemen riding on the backs of a T-Rex while Pterodactyls flew overhead carrying gunmen who machine gunned the road ahead of them.
“Oh no I’ve watched enough police chances to know what comes next.” Elizabeth said gripping the wheel tightly while Milton fired at the police out of the window.
“What the fuck?” Milton shouted as the gunmen started throwing tiny shitty dinosaurs called Camposarus, at the van. They were green and no bigger then 3ft but they looked just as lethal as they bigger cousins and equally pissed off. One of them slammed into the windscreen causing it to crack in a thousands pieces and started snapping at them with its jaws, this caused the van to swerve all over the place as Elizabeth struggled to regain control while angry motorists on their daily commute to work angry beeped their horns.
“We’ve got to get out of this van.” Elizabeth shouted above the din of squeal of dinosaurs.
“Agreed,” Milton said blasting one of fuckers in the head “but we’re not out of the woods yet.”
“No I mean right now as in we need to jump out.”
“Why?” Milton said as another Camposarus clawed at his face.
“The dinosaurs are equipped with micro explosives.”
“Oh shit,” Milton said jumping out of the van a second before it exploded. He hit the ground so hard at first he thought he had broken his arm. Blood poured from cuts in his face as he found Elizabeth who was limping equally blooded and bruised. But that was not the worst of their worries for a whole herd of T-Rex’s were heading straight for them. That’s when he saw McDonalds. His face brightening
he grabbed her arm and headed straight for the fast-food restaurant.
“Milton this is no time for a Big-mac!” Elizabeth said as they limped through the doors just as a load of giggling teenagers rushed past them. He smiled a ‘you’ll see’ as the teenagers vanished inside the jaws of the T’Rex accompanied by the sounds of bones cracking. “Milton!” Elizabeth screamed as a T’Rex’s foot came crashing through the ceiling with one of its razor sharp claws nearing slicing them in half.
“Quick in here.” he said pulling her into the gents toilets.
“If you think I’m going to give you a blowjob…” Elizabeth grimaced clearly in pain.
“No this is where me and the younger Charles Taylor came out of the day I met you.”
“You mean your gay?”
“Look its a tear,” Milton said pointing at a simmering hole hovering in mid air. Elizabeth looked more closely and saw a cave. “It’s a way out!”
They all sat round the table at David and Laura’s house drinking coffee and wondering what their next move should be when Taylor said “David how long will it take to get this ship space worthy?”
“It’s funny you should say that as I’ve already made a start in the basement. Maybe if I have the rest of my crew working on it we could be space worthy in forty eight hours? Why?”
“The ship’s computer said that the ship crashed through one of those tears. If we can fly through one then maybe we can all get back home.”
“The tear closed the moment we passed through it,” Laura said shaking her head “We would need a really powerful explosion to even have a chance of opening it.”
“Would a nuclear bomb do it?” Charlotte said with a coy smile.
“That settles it,” Taylor said grabbing a gun “Milton and Elizabeth you two stay here and help David and Laura rebuild the ship. In meantime me and Charlotte will stop my evil self from destroying the world.”
“What about Troy?” Charlotte said with a heavy sigh “he may be a pain in the arse but he’s our pain in the arse. He deserves to know about what’s going on.”
“Are you more worried about his well being Charlotte or keeping his mouth shut about your dirty secrets?” Taylor said tossing her a gun.
“Both.” Charlotte said with a wink
Charlotte and Taylor set off in Elizabeth’s car heading back to the camp. For once Charlotte was glad Milton had the brains to go back through the tear and bag them some transport. They’d left Milton, Laura and David to fix the spaceship while they retrieved the rest of their people and the bomb. But when they got back to camp it was clear events had over taken them for there was Navy marines holding guns to the heads of Charlotte’s people as they knelt on their knees and the bomb was being loaded onto a truck.
“Now what?” Charlotte said biting her lip.
“We need help,” Taylor said looking through his binoculars “I never thought I say this but we need Troy.”
Chapter 4 - The Machine
Our Earth, London, 2010
Troy gripped the steering wheel with his blooded hands as blood poured from his eye caused by a stray bullet from a fire fight he’d been in with armed response only moments before. T-Rex was playing on the radio so he turned it up full blast to drown out the police sirens in the distance telling him that they wasn’t far behind. He gripped the bag of gems he’d just stolen from the Natural History Museum that will pay for Richard’s cancer treatment. He had to get away or Richard was a good as dead and Troy would rather spend the rest of life his life in prison then let his lover die. He was so caught up thinking about what he was going to do next for didn’t see the car coming out of side road until it was too late. He heard a scream as the air-bag went off in his car.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” a blonde woman screamed at him with cuts and bruises all over her face. She stunk of booze telling him that she’d been drink-driving. Maybe the crash wasn’t his fault after all but they didn’t have to time to argue and swap insurance details for he could see the police blasting down the road heading straight for them.
“I’ll take the blame,” Troy said staggering out of his battered car “we can swap cars and I’ll take the blame.”
“Your going nowhere except a police cell by the way you was driving” the blonde woman said.
“Do you really want to be caught drink driving?”
“What did you do rob a bank or something?” The blonde woman said ignoring while standing in the middle of the road and waving to the police while other motorists furiously beeped at them. “Your going down for a long time pal.”
“If you don’t want to do it for me do it for your daughter.” Troy said spying a child in the back seat.
“Oh my god Ellie.” the blonde woman said rushing over to the back seat of the car. It was obvious by the way the kid wasn’t moving that she’d been seriously injured or worse. Sure enough he closed his eyes when he heard the woman scream. Walking over to her he put a blooded hand on her shaking shoulder.
“Please,” Troy begged handing her the bag of gems “there’s nothing you can do for her now. Take these gems to this address.” He wrote down Richard’s address “I’ll tell the police I stole your car while your daughter was still inside.” Watching the blonde woman pull away in his car he rifled through her handbag and found her drivers licence and the face of Charlotte Anne Ripley starred back at him. He was going to prison for the rest of his life for murder but at least Richard now had the funds to pay for his cancer treatment.
Richard and Troy marched through the jungle. Richard had his hands tied in front of him while Troy kept nudging him once in a while his gun. “So what happened to you?” Troy asked biting into an apple.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“That’s right I wont because you’re lying bastard but we’ve got a long walk back to camp.”
“I can see the future.”
“Really? Pity your future will be really short then.” Troy said with a snigger before tossing his apple core.
“I’ll prove it to you,” Richard said pointing to a tree with his bony finger “In about two minutes lightning will hit that tree.”
“It’s not even raining,” Troy laughed just before it started lashing down with torrential rain so thick and fast they had to shout to hear each other. Now completely soaked what happened next was nothing short of unbelievable. A bolt of lighting lit up the jungle and hit a tree setting it on fire. Richard shoved Troy in his stomach and grabbed his gun in one swift movement before using the burning tree branch to sever the rope tying his hands. Richard was now free and holding a gun to Troy’s head.
“Do you believe me now?”
“Big deal you can predict when lighting will strike. In case you haven’t noticed but we’re 65 million years away from a betting shop!”
“Your best friends Charles Taylor and my ex wife Charlotte are planning to fuck off in a spaceship but we’re going to beat them to it!”
“A spaceship ? Have you gone completely-” Troy began but he never had chance to complete his sentence for a punch from Taylor sent him sprawling into a river of mud. The pair of them started to rolling around in the mud and rain kicking the shit out of each other before Charlotte pulled them apart.
“That’s enough,” Charlotte said dragging Taylor off Troy “we now have a way home but we need your help Troy. Will you help us?”
“On one condition. Put a muzzle on your boyfriend!”
Elizabeth’s 4X4 raced along the beech with Troy behind wheel. The plan was simple; Troy was to act as a diversion creating as much chaos as possible while Charlotte, Taylor and Richard took out a couple of marines to steal their uniform and go undercover to rescue their people and get the bomb back. When the marines saw the black 4x4 coming towards them they starting firing their guns splintering the windscreen in a thousand spider webs and hitting Troy in his shoulder. He lost control of the car sending it crashing into one of the watch towers. Planks of wood rained down on the camp s
mashing into make shift tents and killing a few of the marines and Troy’s people. All of a sudden the camp was plunged into the dark as the generator was destroyed. Troy was a dragged out of the 4x4 blooded and bruised by two burly marines and dragged off.
As soon as the lights in the camp went out Richard, Charlotte and Taylor snook in taking it in turns to knock out a marine to steal their clothes. Charlotte wondered where these guys had come from; were they from her time or the past or were they even from this universe. It didn’t really matter all that mattered to her now was getting her people and her daughter back home safe. Staying out of view she watched a female marine light a cigarette as she barked orders to the Marines who were dragging Troy into the back of a truck for something she called a “temporal experiment” When the marines were out of sight she pounced on the female marine and got her into a neck sleeper position by wrapping one arm around her neck “Don’t fight it.” She whispered. As a security guard she done this many times. To put a person to sleep you need to apply pressure to the external carotid artery while slowly lowing them to the ground. Once the marine was out cold Charlotte stripped and put on the marines uniform and followed Richard and Taylor on board the truck.
The marines clearly knew what they were doing as they drove straight into a cave without hesitation and split second later they drove out only to be met by a clear blue sky radiating a smooth golden sandy beech where a boat was waiting for them; clearly they had gone through a tear. As they loaded food and supplies the marines had stolen from their camp on to a boat along with Charlotte’s people and the bomb, Charlotte watched a turtle nervously scurrying into the sea before submerging beneath the waves. When she heard the familiar screech of a Pterodactyl she felt a shiver run down her spine but again the marines showed that they had come prepared when they blasted it out of the sky without breaking sweat
Into Thin Air: Omnibus Edition Parts 1 - 3 Page 5